I'm lost for words...

Becky Watts

What kind of people can do this to an innocent 16 year old girl? What has society done that makes people commit such heinous crimes?

RIP.

Heinous indeed, but I don't think I'd be pointing the finger at society - murdering a 16 year old girl and then chopping up her body = mental health issues...

I heard the bulletin on the radio, made me feel upset and revolted! I just can't imagine the distress for the parents and family

I still just can't believe what people are willing to do to others even after stuff like this being reported more and more

I hope those involved never see any pleasure or freedom ever again!

Rip Becky

Serious mental health issues...
Poor girl, what a sad end to meet before your life has even got going.

It seriously upset me to hear on the news. I have 2 girls now (1 just 6 weeks old) and I can't imagine what her parents must be going through.

I read that a short while ago and cannot understand how anyone could do such a thing. I cannot imagine how the family are coping but I think a part of me would to somehow make them pay a price worse than any jail cell could offer.

I have a feeling the chopping up of the body was not planned or if it was, was merely (I use that word carefully) a way of disposing of the body.

Dispite what all the papers etc will say, this is as said above not a society thing, neither do I think it is because of the internet or computer games.

God only knows what them do it, but the chances are they are not of sound mind.

I am sure this sort of thing has been happening for years, it's just we have more access to information through the interweb and so on.

I like Nobby have 2 girls (one aged 16 weeks the other 15 years) and it does worry me and always will.

Horrific news.
Words fail on occasions such as this.
Awful.

The girl's stepbrother has been charged with the murder. I would guess that whatever punishment society imposes, if guilty, he will suffer infinitely more in his own conscience for the rest of his life.
Utter tragedy.

You believe he has a conscience?
Far too much faith in the human condition there Jim.

I have to agree. Jim you are obviously a genuinely decent person. Some people just aren't, and this animal is one of them. Before the usual comments, I use the term animal in it's insult to a human context, not to compare him to our non-human neighbours.

All is i will say people could end of doing the same thing given the right (wrong )circumstances . A friend i knew for nearly twenty years was involved a similar murder back in 2010 and is serving 26 years for his crime . I neither want or would have any contact with him now or when hes done his time . My friend was quite and in all the time i have known him never lost his temper or cool in any situation . In fact i was shocked he and his brother were capable of murder . The family member they killed has never being found except for a finger that a bird happened to drop and somebody seen this on cctv (you could not make it up) . I feel sorry for the girls family and hopefully justice is done .

BM & RK - if I'm wrong, then the accused will stand trial and - if found guilty - will be sentenced accordingly and be punished according to the guidelines our society has agreed.

If I'm right, the prison experience will be the least of the punishment.

I don't know the bloke and nor, with respect, do you. Who can tell what happened to result in this appalling act.

I now have an image of a young lad chopping up his step sister merging with Homer Simpson boiling up his pet lobster and crying as he eats it.

Hopefully the prison sentence will see him rot within 4 walls never to be free again.

I can understand how someone could kill someone and later regret it. But butchering the body was a cold and calculated act. You don't accidentally, or in the heat of the moment, reduce a human to it's component pieces. So no Jim, I don't believe there will be a rush of remorse. Much like Jihadi John is unlikely to be struggling with hacking the head off a living person.

The capability of our fellow humans to participate in acts of unspeakable atrocity should be of no shock or surprise to us. People are able to undertake horrendous acts and their reasons can be due all manner of things not least misplaced perceptions and fear.

I can’t honestly subscribe to the simple conclusion that all people who do such things are mentally or evil. The simple categorisation of the people who undertake such acts has to surely be for our benefit only, our need to try and understand. The reasons why people undertake such acts are I suspect significantly more complex and may be hard for us to swallow some times.

I think it's entirely plausible that the murderer could be remorseful.

Let's imagine the killing happened by accident or perhaps in the 'heat of the moment'. It's not unheard of for a normal, otherwise decent person to go to great lengths to avoid a life sentence.

ITV have just had a highly acclaimed TV show about this very thing.

I feel so guilty I've killed someone, I'll dismember the person I feel so guilty about killing? Reduce a formerly living person to pieces of meat? Sorry it doesn't compute.

I think you've touched on something significant there, RK.

It seems obvious to me that the real crime is killing the girl in the first place. What happens to the body is not going to make any difference to her. The reason why we find it so shocking is that it is a reminder to us all that it is, indeed, this easy to 'reduce a living person to pieces of meat'. We don't like to think of ourselves that way.